Five months on, Faridkot teenager remains untraced

Gurdeep Singh, 17, a Class-10 student of a government school here, who went missing on the evening of February 9 remains untraced so far. Surprising, the district police had only entered the incident as a ‘missing person’ complaint in the daily dairy report (DDR) 14 days after the parents of the missing boy reported the matter to the police.

However, the police did not convert the DDR into a FIR allegedly to let the crime go unrecorded and to investigate the case to some conclusion.

“Our son had left home at about 6:30 pm on February 9 telling me that he is just coming back, but has not come back since then,” said his mother Simarjeet Kaur, talking to HT.

“We searched him everywhere and, on February 11, we reported the matter to the police, but they did not register the case for about two weeks on one pretext ot the other,” said Simarjeet.

“We do not know any difference between FIR and DDR, the police told us that it is enough only and they have done the needful,” she said.

But, the couple alleged that no policeman ever contacted them to enquire whether our son had come back or not. “We have been searching him everywhere, mostly in gurdwaras and temples, pasted ‘missing’ but to no help,” said father of the boy Amarjeet Singh.

“The police avoid registering FIRs to avoid the crime data going up. If FIR is registered, the crime report goes to the senior police officers and a copy of each FIR to ilaqa magistrate, but noting is required for the entry in Roznamcha (DDR),” says Gurdit Singh Sekhon, a social activist.

When contacted, Jasvarinder Singh, SHO city, admitted that only DDR was made in the missing incident, but claimed that as per rules, only DDRs are supposed to be entered as far as missing persons are concerned. ”It is the missing incident only, not a kidnapping, so only a daily dairy report (DDR) is entered,” he claimed.

“FIR is must in all cases, DDR may be only for a few waiting hours and if the missing person does not come back, it is supposed to be converted into FIR,” said Mangat Arora, a local senior advocate.